Long ordeal facing 1200 people taken from homes

Press, 14 March 1986, Page 1

Long ordeal facing 1200 people taken from homes

By

CHRIS TOBIN

in Timaru

Residents of flooded Pleasant Point town may not be able to return to their homes for a week or 10 days, or even longer.

The last of the town’s 1200 residents were evacuated to Timaru at 6.30 p.m. yesterday and the chairman of Civil Defence’s regional council, Mr A. C. Houstoun, was uncertain when they might be able to return. “It all depends on the health authorities, which will inspect the homes tomorrow. There could be contamination,” he said. A man was swept off his tractor and is believed to have died in the flooded Tengawai River. The Timaru police said that Mr David Lundie, aged 73, of Sutherlands, was lost when he and his two sons were trying to shift stock about 3km above Pleasant Point. His sons were reported to have clung to trees and been rescued by helicopter. The police will resume the search for Mr Lundie this morning. Health and electrical inspection teams will be formed this morning to check Pleasant Point’s 500 houses. The state of emergency

is likely to remain until at least tomorrow. The only people allowed near Pleasant Point today, besides Civil Defence personnel, will be farmers to check stock. Last evening they were asked to report at 10.30 a.m. at the town’s historical railway shed. They will be escorted to their properties by Civil Defence. The waters of the Tengawai River, which burst its banks 1500 m above Pleasant Point and then flooded the township yesterday morning, were last evening slowly moving towards Washdyke, the industrial area and northern suburb of Timaru. A stopbank was blocking flows to the sea and forcing the waters southwards to the Washdyke lagoon. Water covered several hectares of land and was causing Civil Defence some concern. Heavy rain was falling in the High Country last evening. The call to evacuate Pleasant Point came at 9.30 a.m. Residents were

told to report to the St Joseph’s School hall and then board buses to Timaru. Two helicopters lifted farmers and their families stranded by floodwaters, dropping some at Pleasant Point or flying them on to Timaru’s Red Cross Hall. From there the evacuees were placed in billets, or taken to hotels and motels. Mr Norm Peterson, of Tengawai Road, answered a call to assist with sandbagging in the main street of Pleasant Point about 9 a.m. By 11 a.m. it was critical. “The water level came up about three feet in a matter of minutes, washed out the bridge, and I could not get back home,” he said. _ . Mr Peterson and his family last evening were staying at a Timaru motel. While Pleasant Point suffered the worst of the flooding, other parts of South Canterbury did not go unscathed. Bridges throughout the region have been washed out, roads scoured, and stock swept away.